This site counters virtually every false claim from opposers of Jehovah's Witnesses. For the official information on JWs' beliefs, please visit: www.jw.org.

Search This Blog

JW.ORG and Watchtower Library in one search box:

Monday, May 13, 2013

Quotes: Holy Spirit is a Force from God, Trinitarians Admit

In the Old Testament (OT) it is clear that the inspired Bible writers intended holy spirit (ruah or ruach in Hebrew) to be understood as an invisible, powerful force from God. Even many trinitarian scholars will admit that. For example, TheCatholicEncyclopedia, p. 269, 1976, admits: "In the OT the Holy Spirit means a divine power..."And the NewBibleDictionary, Tyndale House Publishers, 1984, pp. 1136,1137, says: "Spirit, Holy Spirit. OT, Heb. ruah 378 times ...; NT, Gk. pneuma 379 times." And "Divine power, where ruah is used to describe ... a supernatural force...." And "At its [the Old Testament's concept of ruah, God's spirit] heart is the experience of a mysterious, awesome power - the mighty invisible force of the wind, the mystery of its vitality, the otherly power that transforms - all ruah, all manifestations of divine energy." And "at this early stage [pre-Christian] of understanding, God's ruah was thought of simply as a supernatural power (under God's authority) exerting force in some direction."The EncyclopediaAmericana tells us: "The doctrine of the Holy Spirit [as a person who is God] is a distinctly Christian [?] one.... the Spirit of Jehovah [in the OT] is the active divine principle in nature. .... But it is in the New Testament [NT] that we find the bases of the doctrine of the Spirit's personality." And "Yet the early Church did not forthwith attain to a complete doctrine; nor was it, in fact, until after the essential divinity of Jesus had received full ecclesiastical sanction [in 325 A.D. at the Council of Nicaea] that the personality of the Spirit was explicitly recognized, and the doctrine of the Trinity formulated." Also, "It is better to regard the Spirit as the agency which, proceeding from the Father and the Son, dwells in the church as the witness and powerof the life therein." - Vol. 14, p. 326, 1957 ed.And the EncyclopediaBritannicaMicropaedia, 1985 ed., Vol. 6, p. 22 says:"The Hebrew word ruah (usually translated `spirit') is often found in texts referring to the free and unhindered activity of God, .... There was, however, no explicit belief in a separate divine person in Biblical Judaism; in fact, the New Testament itself is not entirely clear in this regard...."The definition that the Holy Spirit was a distinct divine Person equal in substance to the Father and the Son and not subordinate to them came at the Council of Constantinople inAD381...." Many historians and Bible scholars (most of them trinitarians) freely admit the above truth. For example: "On the whole, the New Testament, like the Old, speaks of the Spirit as a divine energy or power." - ACatholicDictionary.AnEncyclopediaofReligion agrees:"In the New Testament there is no direct suggestion of the Trinity. The Spirit is conceived as an impersonalpower by which God effects his will through Christ." - p. 344, Virgilius Ferm, 1945 ed.Even the trinitarian NewBibleDictionary tells us:"It is important to realize that for the first Christians the Spirit was thought of in terms of divine power." - p. 1139, Tyndale House Publishers, 1984.And the respected (and trinitarian) NewInternationalDictionaryofNewTestamentTheology confirms:"As in earlier Jewish thought, pneuma [`spirit'] denotes that power which man experiences as relating him to the spiritual realm of reality which lies beyond ordinary observation and human control. Within this broad definition pneuma has a fairly wide range of meaning. But by far the most frequent use of pneuma in the NT (more than 250 times) is as a reference to the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, that power which is most immediately of God as to source and nature." - p. 693."TheSpiritintheearliestChristianCommunitiesandinActs. `Holy Spirit' denotes supernatural power, altering, working through, directing the believer .... This is nowhere more clearly evident than in Acts where the Spirit is presented as an almost tangible force, visible if not in itself, certainly in its effects. This power of the Spirit manifests itself in three main areas in Luke's account of the early church [Acts]. (a) The Spirit as a transforming power in conversion. [p. 698] .... (b) The Spirit of prophecy. For the first Christians, the Spirit was most characteristically a divine power manifesting itself in inspired utterance. The same power that had inspired David and the prophets in the old age (Acts 1:16; 3:18; 4:25; 28:25) [p. 699] .... (c) The Spirit was evidently experienced as a numinous power pervading the early community ...."TheSpiritinthePaulineLetters. [p. 700] .... It is important to realize that for Paul too the Spirit is a divine power whose impact upon or entrance into a life is discernible by its effects." - pp. 693-701, Vol. 3, Zondervan, 1986. "The emergence of Trinitarian speculations in early church theology led to great difficulties in the article about the Holy Spirit. For the being-as-person of the Holy Spirit, which is evident in the New Testament as divine power ..., could not be clearly grasped.... The Holy Spirit was viewed NOT AS A PERSONAL FIGURE BUT RATHER AS A POWER" - TheNewEncyclopediaBritannica. For more, see:Holy Spirit - Links To Information (Defend Jehovah's Witnesses)The Holy Spirit - Not a Person or God, But an Impersonal Force From God (Defend Jehovah's Witnesses)Do Scriptures Personifying the "Holy Spirit" Really Mean That it is a Person?(Defend Jehovah's Witnesses)Is it true that the Bible describes the Holy Spirit as an "it"? (Search For Bible Truths)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why Do Jehovah's Witnesses Refuse Blood Transfusions?

Why Don't Jehovah's Witnesses Believe in the Trinity?

The New Encyclopædia Britannica observes: "Neither the word Trinity, nor the explicit doctrine as such, appears in the New Testament, nor... in the Old Testament." - 1985, Micropedia, vol. 11, p. 928.(Read entire article)

Some have made the false claim that all Kingdom Halls of Jehovah's Witnesses do not have windows and insinuate that this is because...

This website is NOT an official website of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society

This is a personal website that is not officially supported nor endorsed by the WBTS.

Links are offered here for additional reading, however the manager of this site does not necessarily support every comment on all of these sites. You are invited to conduct your own research.

To those who are not Jehovah's Witnesses, please remember that if you are looking for the authoritative information on beliefs, practices and news releases you should look to the source at http://www.jw.org/en